Downtown Wayne's Next Decade Runs Through 24 Parking Spaces

The street-facing part of the North Wayne Avenue municipal lot covers about 7,500 square feet and holds 24 parking spaces. During the pandemic, the township put up a tent there for outdoor gathering. A park was first proposed for that spot in 2003 and never got built. Now it has a name, Wayne Commons, and a phase-one budget. It also has a schedule that has already slipped once.

Radnor Township's draft downtown plan, A Vision for Wayne, looks ahead to 2036. It covers sidewalks, Lancaster Avenue traffic calming, a Radnor Trail connection and the Anthony Wayne Theater. Read all the way through, the plan keeps coming back to the same question. Downtown has enough parking spaces. The empty ones just sit somewhere other than where drivers want to be, and whatever comes next downtown depends on closing that gap.

The strip of asphalt at the center of the plan

The Board of Commissioners approved Phase 1 of Wayne Commons at its September 14 meeting with a proposed budget of $155,000. The township's October 7 announcement describes a level public park with decorative planters, public seating, entryway signage and retractable safety bollards, opening in spring 2027. A second phase would add permanent fixtures, utility work, stormwater management and green infrastructure.

That spring date is not the one in the draft plan. The draft proposed a temporary pop-up park for summer 2026 to test the idea. Radnor Patch reported on October 8 that business owners and residents raised concerns about losing parking at the September 14 meeting. Commissioners then pushed the groundbreaking for the temporary park from this fall to late winter. Patch also reported a third option now on the table, a "hybrid" space that would serve as a park at some times and as parking at others.

The sources also disagree on how many spaces Phase 1 removes. The township describes the full 24-space footprint becoming a park next spring. Patch reports that the finished park would remove 24 spaces and the temporary version would remove seven. At the October 12 meeting, the commissioners' agenda calls for presentation and acceptance of the plan under Resolution 2026-117. Patch reported that the board will also vote on a traffic-impact study meant to help settle the park's final form.

The township is making its case through a campaign called "More Space for the Community." Ward 3 Commissioner Cathy Agnew put it this way:

"Converting a slice of standard parking spaces into a public Commons creates a safer, walkable downtown experience. It offers a free, inviting place for residents to connect while actively strengthening the economic vitality of our local businesses."

Where the empty spaces actually are

The plan's parking chapter explains why 24 spaces can stall a project. When the township counted, it found about 145 vacant on-street spaces across the study area. Around noon it also found roughly 550 vacant spaces in private off-street lots. The crowded spots were concentrated along North Wayne Avenue and in the North Wayne Lot. The lots and streets with room to spare "tended to be on the periphery of the downtown core."

So Wayne Commons would sit on the most sought-after parking downtown. That is a real cost, even though downtown as a whole has spaces to spare. The plan's resident survey points both ways. According to the draft, 83% of residents said parking either doesn't affect their decision to visit Downtown Wayne or affects it only occasionally. The draft's future-conditions analysis concludes that downtown will not face a district-wide shortage.

Township officials told Patch the problem is signage, since drivers don't know where the open lots are. They pointed to two lots in particular.

1. West Avenue Parking Lot, 108 spaces, which opened last year.
2. South Wayne Avenue Parking Lot, 55 spaces.

The plan's other parking fixes all aim to move drivers toward the edges. They include expanding parking on Louella Court, a program to direct drivers to open spaces, and shared-parking agreements that would open private lots at certain hours, including the SEPTA lot off-peak.

A 391-seat theater makes the math harder

The Anthony Wayne Theater went dark in March 2020, when the pandemic shut it down. Building owner Stephen Bajus agreed to lease it to a local nonprofit, Anthony Wayne Theater, which plans to bring it back as a multi-use arts venue rather than a straight cinema. The group named Jennifer Carlson executive director on July 29, 2026.

In an August 30 interview with Savvy Main Line, Carlson put the fundraising goal at $15 million, with 20% raised at that point. The group hopes to reach 50% in its quiet phase by the end of 2026 and start public fundraising in 2027. It does not plan to set a construction date until it has at least 80% in hand. She described a 2028 opening as an ideal, not a commitment.

The master plan supports the reopening and calls the theater an economic engine for evening and weekend foot traffic. It also works out the parking cost. A movie theater typically generates about 0.2 parking spaces per seat on a weekday and 0.3 on a weekend. Live performance runs closer to 0.4. For the proposed 391-seat venue, that comes to 50 to 70 spaces in normal operation and up to 130 at peak. The plan calls a parking garage "out of scale" with that demand. It expects the public system to handle typical nights. It flags peak periods such as July and December, when evening shows would overlap with restaurant demand around 8 to 9 p.m. and could significantly stress the system. The theater will add no parking of its own. The plan expects its demand spikes to overflow the nearby public lots, with the wider system absorbing the rest.

In other words, a reopened theater only works if drivers learn to use the West Avenue and South Wayne lots. Wayne Commons depends on the same habit.

Two big dining rooms arrive first

The theater is years out. The restaurants are not. The Inquirer's fall forecast lists two Lancaster Avenue openings that will add a lot of seats downtown.

Martini & Roz will serve wood-fired pizza and house-made pasta, according to the Inquirer. Fearless Restaurants, the group behind it, had listed only "this fall" as of an August update in Delco Today. Old Friend belongs to childhood friends Larry Kagan and Chas McFeely, with former Fork executive chef Sam Henzy in the kitchen.

Old Friend's address ties back to the parking question. The draft plan lists an approved mixed-use project at 150 and 168 East Lancaster Avenue with 24 rental units, 10,000 square feet of retail or restaurant space and 36 underground spaces for the apartments. The project received zoning relief from restaurant parking requirements. That relief is the township already acting on the plan's idea that downtown diners can park in the shared system rather than at each restaurant's door.

This fall's calendar, mostly on foot

The plan's other answer to parking is to get more people downtown without a car. It recommends dedicated bike connections from the Radnor Trail to the business district, plus signs along the trail telling users that downtown dining and shopping are minutes away. Much of this fall's calendar already fits that pattern.

• Pumpkin Path Adventure, all of October on the Radnor Trail. Ten pumpkins are hidden along the trail, and two participants who send photos to Parks and Recreation win prizes. Details are on the township's page.
• Downtown trick-or-treat, Oct. 31, 1 to 3 p.m. The Wayne Business Association's tent will be on North Wayne Avenue, the same block at the center of the Commons debate, with Wayne Art Center crafts and treats from participating businesses. Event details are on the WBA site. The township holds its own trick-or-treat at 301 Iven Avenue on Oct. 30.
• Owl encounters and night hikes, Nov. 13 and 20, 7:30 to 9 p.m., at Willows Mansion and the Skunk Hollow Trails, 490 Darby Paoli Road.
• Wayne Art Center, CraftForms 2026 and "Made in Philadelphia," Dec. 6 through Jan. 23, 2027, followed by a Holiday Shopping Weekend Dec. 11 to 13. Dates are on wayneart.org.

The township's events overview lists Christmas in Wayne for Dec. 4 and 5, but its detailed page still shows last year's schedule. Treat those dates as provisional for now.

If Wayne Commons opens on schedule, the spring 2027 trick-or-treat season will be the first in years when the North Wayne lot holds a park instead of 24 cars, and the West Avenue and South Wayne lots will get their first real test.

At Main Line Fine Homes, we track Wayne block by block, because a park on North Wayne Avenue, a reopened marquee or a 300-seat dining room changes how the streets around it work. If you own near downtown Wayne and want to know how these projects could affect your home, request a free home valuation or a private consultation with our team.